Status of Women Committee on Dec. 9th, 2014

[Bonnie Johnston]

Absolutely.

First, as to why this is working so effectively, as I was just saying to Jenny, we are so new in our operations that we're working really hard to get some of that data that will really show some of the effectiveness. That's why we're working with evaluators right now.

In terms of what would happen before, John, first, child and family services has to be able to make that call. Then you're waiting for that police officer to get back to you, right? That could take a couple of days. You're waiting for that physician to let you know if this was intentional harm before you can actually apprehend or the police can charge.

Right now, with everything in one house basically, they're meeting constantly and they're doing their case plans together. They're sitting down together. A child and family services worker is five feet from those police officers. They're integrating their planning, their responses. They work as a team continually. The physician is sitting at triage. They're able to teach and learn and support each other in that environment.

Does that answer the question in terms of the culture we have?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Yes. I think the whole focus here is how we stop the cycle of abuse. That's what we're all here talking about today. I think it's very important that we get that intervention at an early age.

Another thing you talked about earlier was that children will only have to tell their story once rather than having to go to all these different buildings that could be miles away. They're able to sit down with these caregivers and just tell their story once.

Could you talk about that? Once a child is brought to the facility, what is the process they go through at that point?

[Bonnie Johnston]

As soon as it's determined that they're coming into the facility and an investigation has to be done, they will meet with a police officer or the RCMP, who are now on site as well. That child will go to an interview room with all the supports, in terms of a child-focused environment, that are there for their family. It is one interview, as you say. Child and family services can be monitoring at the same time. At that point in time, the story is told. At that point in time, it's caught on the video or the camera if it needs to proceed to court. The high quality is there for that case to move forward so that the child does not have to be re-victimized, telling their story a separate time.

All of those facilities are in place in the centre so that the child can walk through and tell their story. In one case, for example, everything was done in a day. They received support from the therapist and they had a medical examination at the centre all in the same day.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Perfect.

Perhaps you could just explain a little about the prenatal support team and how that came about. I guess we can't intervene any earlier than that. How does that work, and how was that developed?

[Bonnie Johnston]

It's been developed over a number of years. We were experiencing in Calgary, and probably in other cities as well, that even from the time of birth hospital nurses were reluctant to discharge these babies, because they saw in the hospital the evidence of domestic violence. We created a team with public health nurses, police, and child and family services to help these families with these little ones from birth to three months. It was protecting them, but it was also about creating an increased capacity for these families to look after their babies; to provide supports, if women were marginalized; to help them with the parenting; and to help them with instrumental skills that they needed to be successful parents.

There was an interest to move this back even further. We were seeing a number of referrals coming in from city policemen of women who were on the street, were pregnant, and were in high-risk situations. Again, it was moving to intervene earlier so that these women could be connected to prenatal supports and, as importantly, so that their babies could be born safe and with the types of supports they needed.

We were absolutely astounded. As I mentioned, we started with 30 referrals a year ago, and it's up to more than 240 referrals coming in of high-risk pregnant women on the street; sometimes it takes six and seven contacts to find these women. It's an astounding problem, and this is an essential service, which we need to look at more closely in our communities, for these women who have been marginalized and need help during this period of time.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Bonnie, are they brought in to the child advocacy centre, then, once they've been referred to you?

[Bonnie Johnston]

Much of our work is done in the community, so public health nurses move out into the community. They work with police. They're doing most of their work in the community.

We are also connecting with a number of agencies in the city to make sure that these women are brought in to these supports, and we work across the continuum of care in the community.

I mentioned Calgary. I want to mention that we're now developing that model to go into southern Alberta, whereby we at the centre can provide supports and capacity to rural communities as well, with resources and expertise.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Thank you, Bonnie.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

I will now give the floor to Ms. Nash for seven minutes.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to start with Ms. O'Hearn.

You described Nunavut as the most dangerous place in Canada to be a woman. That was very powerful, and the statistics you presented were very powerful.

Can you state precisely how much of the money from the federal government for on-reserve shelters is going to women in Nunavut?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

It's zero.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

There is no money?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

To the best of my understanding, through AANDC they provide $4 million a year for shelters on reserve only. None of that money is available to Inuit communities. They are specifically excluded.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

You may have addressed this earlier, but refresh my memory. Can you tell me what kind of consultation you were able to give for the development of the federal government's action plan?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

We had none. We were not consulted or asked for advice or priorities at all.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

So in the most dangerous place in Canada to be a woman you have not been able to use your voice in advising the government about what the needs are for women in your area.

Can you describe what meaningful consultation by the federal government would look like? I know the UN has guidelines on meaningful consultation. How would you like to be able to involve Inuit women and their voices in advising the federal government?

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I appreciate that question, and it's something we have given a lot of thought to. There's quite a problem in lack of capacity and lack of civil society, if you will, in Inuit communities. Iqaluit is probably the biggest one. It's the only city. Again, it's only really two generations since Inuit have lived in communities and settlements, so it's a speed of light cultural change. In some areas, we still have 70% of Inuit kids not finishing high school. There are a number of challenges: unemployment, poverty, overcrowded housing.

I don't want to overstate it, but when you're just trying to navigate each day and survive, maybe feed your children or not, it can be very difficult to have the ability, the time, the knowledge, the skills to develop that civil society capacity. There are no incorporated women's groups or other groups as we take for granted in the south.

We work with two regional Inuit women's organizations, to the extent we each have the respective capacity. We would like to have a formal engagement with those women on the priorities in their regions.

There are a number of entities. Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council would have a role to play. We have a board. Frankly, in preparing with the provinces and territories for the round table in February, we will be there, I hope, having to have a bake sale. Again, I don't want to overstate it.

We have zero resources to solicit views on priorities, so we've created a new email address, and I'm hoping that women will email us with their priorities. There have to be resources for equitable participation, as was brought up earlier—not per capita but equitable—with a view to equitable outcomes. Using a substantive equality approach, what is required to achieve an equitable outcome, whatever it may be?

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thank you very much.

It seems that, due to the major barriers to women in a variety of ways, to Inuit women and to the Inuit generally just because of geography and culture, special outreach needs to take place.

Ms. Little, we had a terrible situation recently in Toronto, one of the many instances of violence against women and their kids, when a woman was murdered along with her two boys. In the news reports it seems that this woman had been in a shelter, fleeing violence from her husband. She was there for some time, but afterwards, because she was working as a nurse, she did not qualify for transition housing and therefore had to go out on the market. According to news reports, she couldn't afford the rents, went back to her husband, and subsequently she and her sons were killed. The husband is now dead.

Can you describe the limitations for working women who perhaps may not qualify for the subsidies available to the lowest-income women, and the particular challenges and barriers that places for women fleeing violence?

[Marion Little]

I think there are considerable barriers and challenges, not just to working women, but I would say students in our universities. These people are fairly privileged and have access to a lot of resources. The women at École Polytechnique were targeted because they had access to resources and education.

The important piece is to look at this as a comprehensive issue within which we want to nest tailored responses to marginalized groups, but it must be addressed comprehensively to make sure that the access to resources is available to anybody who needs it whenever they need it.

I think a big part of this is comprehensive policy development, so I would encourage you to consult the UN Women virtual resource centre to end violence against women and girls, or endvawnow.org.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thanks very much.

I have one quick question for Ms. Faraday. Is there a role to play by the federal government in the elimination of recruitment fees for live-in caregivers and temporary foreign workers generally?

[Fay Faraday]

Yes, I think it is possible.

Typically, that is something that is handled at the provincial level. The federal government can play a role in establishing standards that must be met before employers can apply to get labour market impact assessments and authorization to hire.

A really good working example is that in Manitoba, the provincial government has passed very strong legislation requiring that all recruiters be licensed and put up security deposits before they can be licensed and that all employers who hire migrant workers must register. For any employer in Manitoba who wants to hire a migrant worker, the federal government will not process their labour market impact assessment applications until they are fully registered under the provincial system and it's clear that they're using a licensed recruiter. That's a way in which the two systems can operate together to build security.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Ladies, in Calgary, Toronto, and here, in Ottawa, thank you very much for enriching our study.

I want to wish you all the best for a safe and pleasant holiday season and a very good year. Keep up the good work.

To all the members, remember that we don't have a meeting next Thursday. I want to convey my best wishes for the holiday. I hope you have a safe and restful holiday and come back full of renewed energy for our committee, which will reconvene in the new year.

I would also like to thank all the support staff. Our work on the committee is supported in a very professional way.

I wish each and every one of you a very happy holiday.

The meeting is adjourned.